Four astronauts are now flying toward the Moon. NASA’s Artemis II mission lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday evening, April 1, marking the first time human beings have traveled beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972, more than half a century ago.
The mission has already made history before reaching the Moon. Victor Glover became the first person of color to travel beyond low Earth orbit. Christina Koch became the first woman to do so. Jeremy Hansen became the first non-American citizen to travel to the vicinity of the Moon. All three milestones are firsts in the history of human spaceflight.
Roughly three and a half hours after launch, Glover manually took control of the Orion capsule after it separated from the rocket’s Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage, conducting critical proximity operations to test the spacecraft’s ability to navigate near other objects in space. “I see it. Look at that, woohoo! “I can see the ICPS and the Moon in the field of view,” Glover said during NASA’s live broadcast.
The approximately 10-day mission will take the crew on a free-return trajectory around the Moon and back to Earth. The journey to the lunar vicinity will take about three days, and the crew will spend one day closely observing the Moon’s far side, which no humans have ever viewed up close.
Artemis II is not a landing mission. It is a crucial test flight that paves the way for Artemis III, which will return astronauts to the lunar surface. The mission will test Orion’s life support systems, propulsion, and communications under real deep-space conditions with a human crew for the first time.
The mission is expected to break the record for the farthest distance humans have traveled from Earth. It will surpass the mark set by Apollo 13 in 1970 by reaching about 4,700 miles beyond the Moon.
For a space program that has faced years of delays and budget pressures, the successful launch represents a defining moment. Mission control in Houston confirmed all systems were nominal as the crew prepared for their first sleep period in orbit. A translunar injection burn is scheduled for Thursday to push Orion toward the Moon.
